In the context of foreign language education, the importance of cultural and literary studies has grown continuously in our globalising world. Language educators and researchers are looking into ways in which inter- and transcultural awareness and competence can be developed so that learners become responsible global citizens. This volume invites the reader to engage in critical thinking while reflecting upon important theoretical concepts and their application in practice. The contributions deal with a wide variety of topics including antinomies that mark literary and cultural competence development, textbook analysis, Shakespeare, South Africa, India, and pop culture artefacts such as graphic novels and songs. Resources are presented to illustrate how theory can be related to practice.

This comprehensive introduction to literature learning in EFL contexts pays attention to both theoretical and practical concerns. It focuses on a wide range of literary genres, different age and ability groups, and gives suggestions for the future of the field. Its readership comprises language teachers, university students and academics.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, University of Kassel (Literature: Language and Cultural Awareness), course: Department of English & Romance Languages, language: English, abstract: This term paper will take several questions into account by starting off with a general definition of the terms ‘Literature, Language and Cultural Awareness’ as they are the basis for talking about literature and literary texts. Afterwards, a precise definition of the terms will follow before the consequences for the EFL classroom will be mentioned which lead to a text example that shows how one can teach the aspects that have been mentioned before and why it is important to teach students literature at all. The text shows that students need to understand other cultural backgrounds in order to understand the whole text since we do not have the expression ‘hills like white elephants’ in Germany. As a result, this text is a good example for showing how important language and cultural awareness are in order to understand literary texts in the EFL classroom. When we talk about literature in the EFL classroom, we should first of all ask ourselves what we need to take into consideration in general when we want to deal with literary texts in the EFL classroom. Some questions arise like why one should teach literature in the EFL classroom and what kind of literature needs to be taught. It is important to read literary texts in the EFL classroom because the curriculum says that teachers should deal with different countries and cultures by presenting people in real life situations. Therefore, they should mostly use authentic material in order to build a connection to the student’s world. The teacher should be careful in choosing texts for the EFL classroom because the texts need to be suitable for the class in order to let the students work with them.

"This book takes cultural knowledge in language learning not only as a necessary aspect of communicative competence, but as an educational objective in its own right. If the aim of foreign language education is to foster cross-cultural awareness and self-realization, language pedagogy needs to come to grips with a range of fundamental issues: what do we mean by cultural context? Can discourse practices be taught like rules of grammar? What role does literature play in the development of second language literacy? How can learners acquire both an insider's and an outsider's understanding of the foreign culture as expressed through its language? By exploring these and other issues, the book can help language teachers reflect on their profession and place it within its larger societal and educational context. In turn, they can help learners become not only skilful users of the language, but also active architects of a new cross-cultural world order.".

A variety of imaginative techniques for integrating literature work with language learning.

The articles presented in this book bring together educators’ work and experiences from around the world (Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Australia) in the context of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This publication, therefore, offers a richness and diversity of contexts and experiences to its readers. What sets this book apart is its balance between and explicit coverage of both research and the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching. This project has been prompted by the increasing split between the fields of linguistics, literatures and English language teaching, and will uniquely address this gap. Additionally, the volume gives practical applications on how to use theories of linguistics and literary texts in the classroom. This book provides undergraduate and graduate students, teacher-learners, practicing teachers, and teacher educators some theoretical and contextual knowledge of English language teaching practices and settings. Articles in this book can be used as supplementary texts for courses in the areas of English Language Teaching, pre-service and in-service teacher education, applied linguistics, literature, and language and culture studies.